Field of the Invention
This invention is generally related to security integration between a wireless and a wired network.
Background Art
In conventional communication systems, a wireless device requesting the use of a particular service (e.g. a PacketCable™ service) from a service provider over a wireless network has to first authenticate itself for use of the wireless network and then authenticate itself for use of the PacketCable service over the wireless network. This conventional method of authentication is time consuming because wireless service authentication and PacketCable service authentication have to be performed serially. Also, a wireless authentication server is required for the wireless service authentication in addition to an authentication server for PacketCable service authentication which results in additional hardware overhead. Lastly, both wireless service authentication and PacketCable service authentication have to be performed by a wireless device thereby occupying computational resources on the wireless device.
Methods, systems and computer program products are needed to overcome the above mentioned deficiencies.
The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers may indicate identical or functionally similar elements. Additionally, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number may identify the drawing in which the reference number first appears.